Greenfield Fire Department saves Whitnall Homecoming

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Whitnall high schoolers almost had to go home early when the power went out during their homecoming dance, but their Saturday night was saved thanks to a quick response from some first responders.

"Students spend a lot of money on their outfit, hair, and makeup, and we wanted to make sure they had the whole experience," said Principal Charles Tollefsen, Whitnall High School.

About an hour into the dance, the room turned black. At first, administrators thought they blew a fuse. In fact, the outage had reached about 1,600 customers in Greenfield and Hales Corners.

Principal Tollefsen said he was worried about two things when the dance went dark: the students' safety and how to entertain them. The music went out with the power.

"All of them got on their smartphones and started texting their friends," said Principal Tollefsen.

Practically before they could send that text, help had arrived.

"We used a generator, a portable, gas-powered generator to power some of the DJ equipment, the lighting in the gym. We used some of our portable lighting in the hallway," said Greenfield firefighter Tom Konieczka.

The department had gotten a call from the school resource officer. The fire department knew for the students, this was kind of an emergency.

"We realized we could probably provide some help with some tools we had back here... being out of power it was getting warm inside this school," said firefighter Konieczka.

The department told the community about the experience on their Facebook page. They say they were happy to help the students make memories.

"We can't thank them enough, they did save the day for us," said Principal Tollefsen.

"Whenever we have a chance to, we try to help. We're kind of a catch-all; the fire department does it all so if somebody is in need, or it prevents injury, or helps, in this case, hundreds of students get a more enjoyable experience it's something we always try to do," said firefighter Konieczka.